Re­pub­lic­ans will cave, the White House will win, the gov­ern­ment will re-open, and the debt ceil­ing will be raised. These things are go­ing to hap­pen, just be­fore or soon after the gov­ern­ment hits its bor­row­ing lim­it — and at that point, Pres­id­ent Obama faces a de­cision.

Do I lever­age my vic­tory in­to a budget deal, elim­in­at­ing both a long-term na­tion­al threat and the main source of par­tis­an bick­er­ing?

Or do I rub salt in­to the GOP’s self-in­flic­ted wounds in the dis­tant hope of win­ning the House in 2014?

Gov­ern or cam­paign? Unite or di­vide? Lead or lay in­to the GOP?

Obama’s choice may be re­vealed in the way he ap­proaches im­mig­ra­tion re­form, which he curi­ously de­clared Tues­day to be his top pri­or­ity after the fisc­al crisis.

“Once that’s done, you know, the day after, I’m go­ing to be push­ing to say, call a vote on im­mig­ra­tion re­form,” Obama told the Los Angeles af­fil­i­ate of Span­ish-lan­guage tele­vi­sion net­work Uni­vi­sion.

It’s an in­ter­est­ing choice, giv­en the na­tion­al debt is an ex­ist­en­tial na­tion­al prob­lem and the crux of the role-of-gov­ern­ment de­bate that has tied Wash­ing­ton in knots for years. Does Obama really think im­mig­ra­tion is a more ser­i­ous prob­lem? Or is it merely the best polit­ic­al is­sue for Demo­crats?

It is tempt­ing to as­sume the worse, es­pe­cially as Obama is mod­el­ing his im­mig­ra­tion mes­sage on his fisc­al-crisis talk­ing points. Blam­ing House Speak­er John Boehner for pre­vent­ing im­mig­ra­tion from com­ing up for a vote in the past, Obama said, “The only thing right now that’s hold­ing it back is, again, Speak­er Boehner not will­ing to call the bill on the floor of the House of Rep­res­ent­at­ives.”

Make no mis­take, Re­pub­lic­ans are on the wrong side of the im­mig­ra­tion de­bate, as meas­ured by the 2012 elec­tion res­ults and the na­tion’s shift­ing demo­graphy. The GOP also en­gin­eered the fisc­al crisis, and Boehner is a tra­gic­ally weak speak­er.

But most voters would be dis­ap­poin­ted if they learn that their pres­id­ent has aban­doned gov­ernance and the hard work of deal­ing with a frac­tured GOP to en­gage in an all-or-noth­ing bid for the House. While the White House and Con­gress stumble to an agree­ment, the great un­known is Obama’s second act. Will he be more pres­id­en­tial than polit­ic­al? Or will raw polit­ics define his pres­id­ency?

"Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency who has found himself and his agency at odds with the Trump administration in recent months, told staff members Tuesday that he is planning to step down from his post." The Obama administration holdover will step down on October 1.

Source:

HAD BEGUN TO PUBLICLY CRITICIZE TRUMP

Sen. Corker to Retire

1 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Another Republican member of Congress is showing himself out the door. After much thought, consideration and family discussion over the past year, Elizabeth and I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018,” said Sen. Bob Corker in a statement. The Tennessean has served since 2006.

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NOT ILLEGAL, BUT MUST BE FORWARDED TO WORK ACCOUNTS

At Least 6 WH Advisors Used Private Email Accounts

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

Jared Kushner, Stephen Bannon, Reince Priebus, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, and Ivanka Trump sent or received some emails on personal accounts that related to White House business. "Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so they can be preserved."

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SAYS CONTACTS WERE “BENIGN”

Stone Releases Correspondence with Guccifer 2.0

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, released correspondence Tuesday" with the online hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 , which "U.S. intelligence agencies said was used by Russian government-linked entities to distribute embarrassing information about Democrats during the 2016 election. The disclosures came in a 47-page opening statement made available to reporters in advance of Mr. Stone’s Tuesday appearance in front of the House Intelligence Committee." Stone called his contacts with Guccifer "limited" and "benign."

Source:

PRIEBUS, SPICER, HICKS, MCGAHAN

Mueller Could Start Interviewing White House Figures This Week

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Special counsel investigators could start interviewing current and former White House staff as soon as later this week regarding the Russian probe, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. One source cautioned it is still being worked out with Robert Mueller's office and said it might be delayed until next week." Among those who could have a sit-down with the special prosecutor: former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer, communications director Hope Hicks, White House counsel Don McGahn, communications adviser Josh Raffel and associate counsel James Burnham.